A man who was frustrated with his ailing 70-year-old mother bludgeoned her with a hammer, dismembered her body and dumped the remains in a drainage ditch, authorities said.

Investigators arrested 45-year-old Francis Riccio on Thursday in Brooklyn, N.Y. Police said Riccio moved his family north after Maureen Riccio died in late March. He's being held without bond in New York on charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a dead body.

Brevard County Sheriff's Maj. Tod Goodyear told Florida Today that Maureen Riccio lived with her son, his girlfriend and their three children. He said the children appeared to be unaware of what happened to their grandmother.

The body was found May 14 by an electrical engineer who had stopped on the side of a road.

Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.